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General BackgroundTeaching is Dr. Sharma's passion, and her love of teaching is what brought her to Nebraska Methodist College where she teaches varied science courses in the Division of Arts and Sciences. She also has been an adjunct faculty member at Bellevue University since 2003. As a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Opthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC, 1996), Dr. Sharma conducted research that examined the role of bHLH transcription factors in retinal development. She cloned NeuroD cDNA from rat and primate retina, and mapped the temporal and spatial aspects of NeuroD expression in the developing rat retina. In 1997, Dr. Sharma also served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Vision Sciences in the School of Optometry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB 1997), where her cataract research focused on D-Crystalline degradation and association of its fragments with water soluble-high molecular weight (WS-HMW) proteins.

Dr. Sharma was the recipient of a Service Learning Grant funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service (2008), and also received a Travel Fellowship Grant from the Retina Research Foundation (1997). She has received outstanding performance awards (Bellevue University, 2000, 2003). Her biography was published for Outstanding Achievements in Who's Who in America (2009). Dr. Sharma's scholarly activities include serving as a Peer Reviewer for Online Teaching (JOLT), and participating in the Faculty Fellows Program, sponsored by the North Omaha Boys and Girls Club (2008). She has also served as a Board Member for Annual Editions of Microbiology.